Mauritius

MAURITIUS is a small island located off the east cost of Africa. A former French colony, it is a member of the British Commonwealth.

Profile

Country Number (21)	1966	FIRST WAVE
Region	Africa	Commonwealth
Television commenced	June 1964
Colour System	1973	SECAM
Population	1966	750,000
TV Sets	1966	4,000
Language/s	English and French

Television Stations / Channels

Mauritius began its television service in 1964.

There is just one television station: Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation.

Colour transmissions began in 1973 using the SECAM colour broadcast system.

The main languages of Mauritius are French and English. Television broadcasts were in both or either language (possibly supported by subtitles).

Doctor Who aired in English.

DOCTOR WHO IN MAURITIUS

Mauritius was the 21st country to screen Doctor Who (see Selling Doctor Who).

BBC Records

The Seventies records a sale of 15 stories by 28 February 1977. The Handbook identifies these as being: A, C, D, E, F, G, H, J, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S.

In DWM, Mauritius is identified in 16 story Archives: the same as above, but omitting A, and adding B.

It's clear from the listings that a combination of both publications gives an accurate record: however, as the listings show, R did not air.

Stories bought and broadcast

WILLIAM HARTNELL

Sixteen stories, 75 episodes (but note the out of order sequencing of two stories) (*):

Doctor Who – Nouvelle série de science fiction... , 21 October 1966

A	An Unearthly Child	4
B	The Daleks	7
C	Inside the Spaceship	2
D	Marco Polo	7
E	The Keys of Marinus	6
G	The Sensorites	6
H	The Reign of Terror	6
F	The Aztecs*	4
K	The Dalek Invasion of Earth	6
L	The Rescue	2
M	The Romans	4
N	The Web Planet	6
J	Planet of Giants*	3
P	The Crusade	4
Q	The Space Museum	4
S	The Time Meddler	4

Mauritius therefore bought GROUP A, B and C (bar one story) of the standard package of William Hartnell stories, although some played out of order.

Although The Chase is recorded as being sold to Mauritius, the fact that it is absent from the TV listings indicates it wasn't actually broadcast. The fact that Mauritius screened Doctor Who during 1966 and 1967, which was when the BBC had placed a moratorium on the sale of Dalek stories, might explain why The Chase was absent from the schedule. (They might have 'bought' the serial, but was later informed that it was not actually able to be screened.)

The programme was supplied as 16mm black and white film prints with English soundtracks.

Origin of the Prints?

Kenya was the previous African country to screen the same initial set of the first 53 episodes; since both countries were serviced by the programme distributor Television International Enterprises Limited (see WRTH), it’s possible that Mauritius was supplied with some of the same set of prints that had aired in Kenya.

The other 22 episodes came from elsewhere.

Transmission

WILLIAM HARTNELL

Doctor WHO: "Paris", 16 June 1967

The series started on Friday, 21 October 1966, at 6.33pm. It completed its run 75 weeks later, on 29 March 1968. Episode five of The Keys of Marinus is listed twice: 7 and 14 April, indicating it was pre-empted.

Both The Aztecs and Planet of Giants screened out of sequence, per the table above.

The timeslots ranged from 6.25pm to 6.33pm.

As noted below, some of the listings go awry for 18 weeks; if we took those all at face value, then the first episodes of Planet of Giants and The Dalek Invasion of Earth aired together, followed by The Aztecs, then the remaining five episodes of The Dalek Invasion of Earth. Part four of The Romans didn't air; neither did part two of The Web Planet.

We have made an attempt to make sense of what we think did screen on the dates when the listing was clearly wrong.

There is no clear record that Doctor Who screened on Mauritius again, even after the introduction of colour.

TV listings

Doctor WHO: and the Romans, part 3, 10 November 1967

Doctor WHO: The Space Meseum (sic), part 2, 16 February 1968

TV listings have been obtained from the French newspaper Le Mauricien.

The listings sometimes capitalise part of the title as "Doctor WHO". Episode titles were always given in English. (Listings for programmes were in English or French; presumably those with French titles were broadcast exclusively in that language - for example see the image on this page for 16 June 1967, which has Doctor WHO and The Avengers listed in English, but the other listings are in French.)

The brief description given for first episode was in French: "Nouvelle série de science fiction avec Dr Who, sa petite fille Susan et ses deux élèves: Ian Chesterton et Barbara Wright", which translates as "New science fiction series with Dr Who, his granddaughter Susan, and her two pupils, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright" (in which case they completely mistook the actual relationship between Susan, Ian and Barbara!)

As noted in Transmission above, for an 18 week period from 21 July to 17 November 1967, the listings were out of sync with what should have been airing that week, an 'error' that corresponds with when the stories began to screen out of order. The listings errors are either printing / clerical mistakes, or they do indeed reflect the actual screening order, which does mean two episodes aired twice, and two didn't screen at all!

With part two of The Web Planet, the listings fell back into sync with what should have been on screen. In our Airdates table, we have noted what we think actually aired on that date when it's clear the listed title is wrong.

Some of titles given were incorrect, such as [The Daleks]] episode two being billed as "The Survivals"; part two of Inside the Spaceship printed as "The Bunk of Disaster"; part one of Marco Polo was "The Side of the World", part three was "Five Hundred Edges", and part five was "Rider from Shan". Episode two of The Reign of Terror was given as "Paris". (It is possible that this change – from "Guests of Madame Guillotine" – was deliberate, given that Mauritius was an ex-French colony, and perhaps the word "guillotine" was banned from use?) Part two of The Romans is "All Words Lead to Rome"; the final part of Planet of Giants was printed as "Crsiis".

Interestingly, part three of The Romans had the full title as: "Doctor WHO: Dr Who and the Romans: The Conspiracy", while "Dr Who and the Crusade" is used with three of the listings for that story. "Doctor Who and the Space Museum" is also named in full three times. (Although part two was written as "Meseum".)

Fate of the Prints

The next country serviced by Television International Enterprises Ltd to air Doctor Who was Sierra Leone, from April 1967, so it's possible that Mauritius sent its prints of the first eleven Hartnell stories to Sierra Leone.

Mauritius was the last English-speaking country to screen the four stories from The Romans to The Crusade until Ethiopia picked up the series in 1970...

Mauritius in Doctor Who

• Sure, it's a stretch, but the first Doctor travelled with Dodo (Dorothea Chaplette); the now extinct dodo bird was indigenous to Mauritius.

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